Chapter 193: Tease
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
This hidden storyline seems to have something to do with digging the history. Logically, it shouldn’t result in a big impact, but since it’s the main storyline, could it be that there’ll be some shocking secret that’ll be dug up? Han Xiao thought as he walked on the street.
No matter what secrets there were, it was not his mission, and there were enough chances for him to explore it, but of course, the rewards were the most important part.
Since the mission in Maple was completed, Han Xiao left that very day. The threats that he had issued had resulted in the local intelligence institution carrying out a hidden investigation throughout the city, but because of the ‘godly assassination’ of a government official, the investigation was very thorough.
Because they were in the same organization, Han Xiao brought Golden Fox and Ghost Blade as he retreated. Ghost Blade was unwilling at first, but the situation was severe, so he had to compromise.
Ghost Blade did not like the feeling of being protected by someone, so he was sulking most of the way.
After successfully leaving Maple, Han Xiao separated from the duo and rushed toward the cargo plane toward Farian without stopping. The players in the novice villages of the Western Continent were still waiting for his arrival.
The forum had exploded. The players that were waiting for Han Xiao panicked and were worried that he would not be coming anymore. They started being superstitious and spammed posts in the forum to pray for Han Xiao’s arrival. The posts reached the astonishing number of 300,000. It was so terrifying that Han Xiao was worried that he might be buried in the sea of players.
Some of the players started to play with memes.
“Youngster, did you drop this Black Phantom, this White Phantom, or this Yellow Phantom? Hmm, you’re an honest child. To reward you, you can exchange your money to learn skills.”
“Shhh, look at what I found, there’s a Black Phantom that is different from the others. We can try to capture it. One Black Phantom could provide us with energy for many days. But it is not easy to deal with. We have to quietly close in from its back... Ahhh, I’ve been discovered. Help, it wants to eat me, run Calvin!”
“Black Phantom used Death Stare. It was super effective.”
Finally, after tens of thousands of summons, the Great Mechanic Han Xiao arrived at a novice village. The players waiting for Han Xiao there were countless, much more than any other novice village.
The moment he appeared, players rushed over like an avalanche. People who did not know might even have mistaken them for a locust plague.
Han Xiao looked at the level of the players—they were at an average of level ten. The hundreds of top-level players on the forum have already reached LV 18; Maple Moon was one of them. With the help of the Great Mechanic Han, she had been the biggest winner of the prize pool.
However, other players also had their own opportunities. The number of people at the same level was not small, but most of them were players from other countries on other novice planets. Planet Aquamarine was the base camp of China’s esports clubs, but the number of their players at the top of the level leaderboard was the lowest. It was quite a pain for Han Xiao.
Disappointing, come on guys, buck up!
Then, he looked at the countless players in front of him, pondered, and said, “What’s the use of leveling up fast? Being able to fight is the way to go.”
Hmm, nothing wrong with that.
Only players from big guilds that were climbing the level leaderboard would be rushing their levels without upgrading their abilities. Other players would not be doing the same. Even though leveling up was fast at the start, it would be slower as their level became higher.
With the experience quota, Han Xiao had to think about the missions he gave out. If he wanted to cultivate one player, he could make that player grow at a much higher speed than anyone else, but he would not do that, at least not before the players reach LV 20.
Before LV 20, [Energy Training Technique] had a lot of market potential, so it was extremely profitable.
...
Han Xiao taught abilities as usual, and the players came swarming. Gaining experience points in novice village was also a way of relaxation for him, so he had time to browse the forums.
On the forums, the popularity of Inhuman Phenomenon was over the top, and not only on Planet Aquamarine. Similar situations had occurred on other planets too, and players received different treatments.
On the Wizard Planet, they were researched by the witches and were discovered to have a very high talent for sorcery, which was in fact the learning ability on the player Interface. They then shockingly joined various sorcery academies.
On the Ancient Planet, they were seen as messengers of God and worshipped.
On the Ice Winter planet... Oh, the players in the Ice Winter Planet were the safest. The devil species had no interest whatsoever in their unique characteristic of being able to revive after death, and when the players saw the spaceships of the Space Devil species dash through the universe and breaking apart the meteors surrounding the planet for resources with their gravity capturing devices, they all understood why the reaction of the devil species was so normal.
To the Extinguish Army, the strength of the players was like an ant. Who would care about what an ant looked like?
Of course, there was also the possibility that the devil species were used to seeing the ability to revive. No one knew for sure. It was all just speculation anyway.
The planets above were all very lucky, but Planet Aquamarine was one of the unluckiest planets. NPCs were very fearful toward the players. The players were captured, experimented on, sliced to pieces, and brainwashed—they were treated like slaves.
Players being filled with hatred was a certain, and with the situation on Planet Aquamarine, the players had new speculations.
Black Phantom was probably a compensation from the game company and producers!
“No wonder! That’s why a character like Black Phantom only exists on our planet!”
“Luckily, there is Black Phantom. If we didn’t have him, we would have nothing to play with!”
Seeing comments like this, Han Xiao smiled. His efforts did not go to waste.
As he saw the expression in the players’ eyes, he smiled even brighter, looking like a farmer who was looking at his harvest.
The Inhuman Phenomenon on Planet Aquamarine had arrived at a key stage. All the organizations were contacting the players. Some of them were using a soft approach like Stardragon and Hesla; there were also some that went for a colder approach like Raylen and Ordina; other militaries and financial organizations were taking action, too. It was not all bad for the players, at least they had the opportunity to join an organization without having to run everywhere, and that was exactly what the players did, with the Six Nations having most players joining them.
In Han Xiao’s previous life, the Germinal Organization had lured in the most players, but now, their bases were all destroyed, and they could only capture players in the local area of their headquarters. It was pathetic—their player count was reduced by approximately eighty percent compared to his previous life.
The Inhuman Phenomenon also lead to another change; the players developed a hobby of teasing the NPCs. They became very curious and asked a lot of questions, and they liked to do things that were out of the line, wanting to see the reaction from the NPCs.
Players had a lot of fun, but to NPCs, they were acting extremely weird.
All the organizations did one thing at the same time—they added one line to the Inhuman documents. “Most Inhumans have a mental illness. Their actions are very random, and they might do anything. They cannot be judged with a normal mindset.”
Han Xiao did not know to cry or to laugh when he saw this line on the Dark Net. There was another line that made him burst into laughter.
“With research, the Inhumans have gender, but they do not have genitals and reproductive abilities.”
The game did not allow players to get naked, and from the NPCs’ perspective, it was like their underwear was part of their body, which was very incomprehensible.
Han Xiao was laughing uncontrollably. He could imagine how the organizations found out about this...
Unable to reproduce, which meant that Inhumans were not a new species. Of course, there was a possibility that their way of reproducing was different from what the people on Planet Aquamarine knew about. There were also all kinds of speculations about the Inhumans on the Dark Net, with various emotions like terror, nervousness, and many others.
Han Xiao noticed the once abandoned religion seemed to have rejuvenated. They claimed Inhumans to be messengers sent by God to save the world.
Some players had the thought of teasing Black Phantom. Since Black Phantom was the guider of new players, would he also be shocked like the other NPCs? Teasing an NPC was a fun thing to do.
“Black Phantom, your name is Han Xiao, you served Stardragon before, and you are now a member of the Dark Net, am I right?” a player named Flying Naughty Prawn suddenly said. He had seen the video from Bun-hit-dog and had an interesting idea. He wanted to expose Black Phantom’s identity right in front of him and see what would happen.
There was no way for Black Phantom to know that his identity was exposed. When he saw a stranger stating his true identity, would he be shocked and lose his cool?
Flying Naughty Prawn was staring at Han Xiao while snickering.